Michael Nyqvist Ready To Fly As Part Of Ensemble For The Seagull

Sorry, Daniel Craig, but Michael Nyqvist will always be my Mikael Blomkvist. After portraying the besmirched journalist in the original Millennium trilogy, Nyqvist broke out big time by playing Tom Cruise’s chief nemesis in Brad Bird’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Now he’s parlaying that exposure into a high-profile job on a star-studded ensemble tackling Anton Chekhov’s classic play, The Seagull.

The production already boasts Katie Holmes, William Hurt, Allison Janney, Cherry Jones, Russell Means and Jean Reno, according to Variety. The trade notes that the independent production will launch production in June, with an eye on location shooting in Connecticut.

Chekhov’s play first saw the stage in 1896, following a handful of mismatched lovers as they fall in and out of love on a country estate. Sidney Lumet famously adapted Chekhov’s complicated prose in 1968, with James Mason and Vanessa Redgrave in the leads. Variety says director Christian Camargo will make his directorial debut on Seagull, with the action set in rural New England (as opposed to Mother Russia, where Chekhov set his play). The trade does not specify if the time frame will be the 19th century or modern day, though they do clarify that Nyqvist will play Jonah, the estate’s caretaker.

Nyqvist is an absolute pro, and could handle virtually any role in The Seagull. I was worry that he’d be relegated to nondescript “Foreign Bad Guy” roles in Hollywood, but Seagull could make very good use of his talents, and the cast is pretty solid. More on The Seagull as it develops.